


Star Trek Secret Santa fics

by That_One_Curly_Haired_Fangirl



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Pre-Relationship, Star Trek Secret Santa 2016, Star Trek Secret Santa 2017, Star Trek Secret Santa 2018, Tags do not apply to all chapters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 01:42:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17152928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/That_One_Curly_Haired_Fangirl/pseuds/That_One_Curly_Haired_Fangirl
Summary: Fics I’ve written for the Star Trek Secret Santa exchange on tumblr. Adding them here because they’re the only thing I’ve posted on that site that I’d actually care about savingSummaries are in each chapter





	1. Secret Santa 2016: Finding a Home [Ziyal on DS9]

**Author's Note:**

> I know collections exist for some years, but I’m mostly posting these here for my own sake so I don’t think I’ll add them to the collections. While I’m mostly doing this for my own backup, I hope any readers enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ziyal starts to make friends and find a home on DS9. Featuring Kira, Keiko, Jake, and some other friends and set late season 4/early season 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written for gladdecease on Tumblr for this prompt:  
> I love Ziyal, and I'd love to see her with more than two people on DS9 she considers a friend. Who she befriends is up to you - though I will say I'm a sucker for any interaction with Jake Sisko, and I think Keiko O'Brien could've been a fantastic mentor/friend to Ziyal, similar to Ziyal's friendship with Kira.

Ziyal knew that she would be considered unusual by most. As far as she knew, there weren’t any other people who were Cardassian and Bajoran. Because of her unique heritage, it could be hard to make friends. She knew that her father loved her and that Nerys cared about her, but beyond that she wasn’t sure. On Cardassia she’d been shunned by most because she was half Bajoran, and the Bajorans seemed equally wary of her since she was half Cardassian and the daughter of the infamous Gul Dukat. Since coming to Deep Space Nine, she’d mostly kept to herself other than talking to Garak, who also seemed wary of her because of the hostility between him and her father. Still, he could at least tell her stories of Cardassia, even if she doubted that all the stories were true. All in all, her life was pretty isolated.

That all changed when Nerys started carrying the O’Briens’ baby. Ziyal had been in the quarters she and Nerys shared when the Major walked in, looking a bit confused but not alarmed. Since that was unusual for Nerys, Ziyal was curious. “Hello Nerys. What’s going on?”

Nerys still seemed caught up in her thoughts for a moment before turning to Ziyal. “How do you feel about moving? The O’Briens want me to move in with them while I’m pregnant, but I told them I’d have to take some time to consider it. They said you could come too, but since they already have the biggest quarters they can get and can’t expand more you’d have to bunk with their daughter Molly. What do you think?”

Ziyal had to take a moment to process that. She hadn’t spent much time around large groups of other people since the Breen labor camp. Sure, there’d been her half siblings and other family on Cardassia, but they’d ignored her much as the other Cardassians did. Besides that there had really only been her father’s freighter crew. She really hadn’t spent much time around children at all. “How old is Molly?”

Nerys rubbed her head and seemed to be thinking a bit. “She’s five Earth years old I think, so still pretty young. Even if we did move in with them I could probably arrange for you to go somewhere else if you don’t want to share a room with her.”

While Ziyal wasn’t sure she’d know how to act around children, she decided it would be good to know other people. Some friends could be nice. “No, it’s ok, I think this could be fun.”

“Alright then.” Nerys nodded and surveyed their quarters. “We can start packing; they said they’d get ready for us to move in right away.”

______

Settling into the O’Briens’ quarters was…odd. Ziyal shared a room with Molly and got to have the upper bunk that got added in as well as some space to store her things, which admittedly she didn’t have much of. The O’Briens themselves seemed very welcoming. Well, Chief O’Brien seemed a little on edge around her, but Nerys explained that he was generally distrustful of Cardassians ever since he’d fought against them in a war between Cardassia and the Federation. Nerys assured her that he’d probably warm up eventually with the underlying implication that she would make the Chief be friendly if necessary.

Keiko and Molly, however, were more open. While Molly seemed a bit hesitant about sharing her room, after a little bit of encouragement from her mother she was explaining her toys to Ziyal and offering to let Ziyal color with her. Ziyal gladly accepted; she’d always enjoyed drawing but didn’t get to do it as often as she liked. The two of them settled on the floor to color on the table in the O’Briens’ living area.

“Wow Ziyal, that’s really good.” Ziyal jumped slightly at the sound of Keiko’s voice from the couch behind her.

“Oh, thank you.” Ziyal glanced up at Keiko, who had been quietly reading something on a padd.

“Have you taken any art classes before? You’ve got a lot of skill.” Keiko shifted to sit on the floor next to Ziyal and Molly, who was still absorbed in her own drawing.

“Not really.” Ziyal looked down nervously. “When my mother and I were living together during the occupation, my father made sure that I got a good education, which included some art classes as part of the curriculum. After that though, my education was… less formal.” In the mines no one really bothered to try to teach her, even though she’d still been young then. After that her father had let her have access to the computer banks on Cardassia and on his ship, but while it was nice to get to explore the topics she liked Ziyal still missed a bit of the structure of learning at school.

Keiko seemed to understand a bit of what went unsaid, because after a moment of hesitation she spoke up again. “You know, I ran the school on this station back when there were actually enough kids to have one. After most of the kids left I tutored the ones who stayed here. We don’t have to if you don’t want to, but if you want I could help you fill in the gaps, give you a curriculum to follow if you wanted to do something more formal.”

Ziyal smiled. “I think I’d like that.”

“Great!” Keiko smiled back at her. “I haven’t really had the chance to teach anyone since Jake and Nog finished. This will be fun.”

“Yeah.” Ziyal was a little nervous, but then something else occurred to her. “Who’s Jake? I’ve heard Nerys mention him but I’ve barely met anyone here.”

“Oh, he’s Captain Sisko’s son. He’s around your age.” Keiko looked at her thoughtfully for a moment before continuing. “If you want, I could probably introduce you two. I bet he’d like knowing another person close to his age on the station now that Nog’s off at Starfleet Academy.”

Him being the Captain’s son sounded a little intimidating, but Ziyal did want to meet more people, and it had been a while since she’d known anyone her age. “That would be nice. Thank you.”

“No problem.” Keiko got up. “I’ll comm him to see when he’s free.”

_____

That was how the next day Ziyal ended up meeting Jake Sisko for lunch at the Replimat. When she got there most tables were already occupied. She noticed that Garak was there with Dr. Bashir, but they seemed very absorbed in their conversation so she didn’t try to go over to their table to say hello.

After she got her food and looked around she saw a young human who seemed absorbed in the padd in his hand and matched Keiko’s description of Jake. Ziyal nervously made her way over and paused when she was next to the table. “Hello. Are you Jake Sisko?”

After a moment he looked up from his padd and smiled. “Yeah, that’s me. You must be Ziyal, right? Sit down.”

“That’s me.” She shifted to sit down and set down her tray. “So, Keiko said you were a writer? Are you working on a story now?”

Jake’s smile turned shy. “Yeah, I am. I’m not ready to share it yet, so don’t ask to read it. It still needs some work.”

“Ok.” Ziyal paused a moment, unsure what to say next. “Can you tell me about it though? I like hearing stories.”

“Sure!” Jake smiled widely again and his eyes lit up. “So it all starts like this…”

As he launched into his explanation, Ziyal decided that she liked Jake and the passion he showed when talking about his stories. She hoped that he’d agree to meet up again.

____

Lunch with Jake did end up becoming a regular occurrence. Often they’d talk about his stories, but they also got onto other topics, like Ziyal’s art, which led to her bringing in a drawing to show him. While he was impressed, she was still a bit shy about her work and so it wasn’t often she brought art to lunch with her. They’d usually end up talking about other topics, like whatever Keiko was teaching her that week or whatever was going on at the station. Once Nog came back to DS9, he started to join them for lunch as well, which led to her visiting their quarters when they all had free time.

Lessons with Keiko also became regular. Even when Keiko left the station to visit family or for work related reasons, she’d keep in touch with Ziyal to see how she was doing. Those conversations would typically start on academic topics then end up with them going on tangents about whatever they’d found interesting or just switch to catching up about how they were doing or about whatever was going on on the station or wherever Keiko was.

On the occasions that Molly didn’t go with Keiko, Ziyal would usually end up watching her when Nerys and Chief O’Brien were both working or busy. Ziyal found that she really liked spending time with the little girl. Often they’d just sit quietly and color or draw, but sometimes the two of them would play with Molly’s other toys together.

Chief O’Brien did eventually warm up to her. They mostly only spent time together when the O’Briens, Nerys, and Ziyal all ate together, but the Chief did seem more comfortable with her once he realized that his daughter and wife liked her. He even offered to teach her to play darts.

Without really realizing it, Ziyal had gone from spending most of her time alone in the quarters she and Nerys had shared to barely spending time alone unless she wanted it. She finally had friends all over the station. She hadn’t felt this happy since she’d been on Cardassia with her father. Deep Space 9 was starting to feel like home.


	2. Secret Santa 2017: A Pair of Stars [Hoshi and Uhura]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uhura thinks back to who inspired her to join Starfleet, and the the time she met her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written for tchintchun for this prompt:  
> Hoshi is Uhura's role model (either AOS or TOS)
> 
> I don’t think Uhura’s early life varied much between TOS and AOS, so this can be either

If anyone ever asked Nyota why she joined Starfleet, she’d typically shrug it off with a smile and tell them it was a long story. But really it boiled down to two words, or a name really: Hoshi Sato.

But if Nyota got started talking about Hoshi, she knew she wouldn’t be able to contain herself. They’d actually met once, if only briefly, when Hoshi was a very old woman and Nyota was a little girl. Nyota had started to get interested in linguistics at a very young age, so when her mother heard that Hoshi Sato was giving a lecture nearby, she’d taken little Nyota to see her.

Nyota was a little too young to understand some of the concepts Hoshi talked about, but that day still left a major impression on her. To put it simply, Nyota was starstruck. Here was someone who she’d heard about both in her history classes and in her linguistic books she’d read for fun, and she was just casually lecturing in Swahili to them as easily as if it was her own first language, even though Nyota knew that it was probably just one of many languages she spoke. And Nyota knew that it had to be real; there was none of the awkwardness or linguistic slip ups that could sometimes come from using a universal translator. Hoshi seemed so comfortable as she talked about linguistics and also shared many of her own stories, like how she’d initially had a lot of fears when it came to space travel on her first mission on the _Enterprise_ but overcame them and eventually enjoyed her time in space, in part because of all of the interesting new languages she got to encounter and decipher. She would also casually switch between languages with seemingly no difficulty from time to time to illustrate what she was talking about, even recalling languages she’d encountered decades ago, like back on that first mission on the _Enterprise_. Nyota just listened with rapt attention, each word she heard only making her idolize Hoshi more.

It all sounded so exciting to Nyota, and it was probably right then and there that she first thought about joining Starfleet herself. But the best part definitely came afterwards.

Although she forgot what it was now, Nyota came up with some question that she’d wanted to ask Hoshi, so she begged her mom to let them stay after the lecture so that she might have a chance of asking it in person. So they sat through the usual question and answer time, and then waited until Hoshi had formally ended the lecture and was starting to pack up her materials as the room emptied out. Then they carefully made their way to the front of the lecture hall, Nyota holding her mother’s hand.

As they got to the front, Nyota got shy. This was the Hoshi Sato, and Nyota was just a little kid. By the time they were actually in front of Hoshi, Nyota was half behind her mother. She heard her mother greet Hoshi and say that her daughter had a question, but Nyota still couldn’t quite bring herself to ask it.

The next thing she knew, Hoshi was crouching down to be on eye level with Nyota and smiling at her as she tucked the silvery hairs that had gotten loose from her bun back behind her ears. Still speaking perfectly fluent Swahili, Hoshi waved and said, “Hi. What’s your name?”

Nyota remembered still feeling a little too awestruck to get out from behind her mother’s legs or speak any louder than a mumble, so she was surprised that Hoshi was able to hear at all when she answered. “Nyota.”

“That’s a pretty name.” Hoshi smiled a little more warmly. “It means star, right?” Nyota nodded hesitantly. “My name means star too. Did you know that?”

Nyota had nodded, and they’d ended up talking for a little while. Nyota warmed up to her and started trying to speak different languages with her and Hoshi was nothing but kind and encouraging. She’d even insisted Nyota call her by her first name so they could both be stars together. At the end of it, Hoshi had gotten up from where she’d been sitting on the floor with Nyota and smiled at her mother. “You’ve got quite the talented kid here. She might even surpass me one day.” Nyota had grinned at that, even though even then she’d doubted it. After all, Hoshi was probably the most brilliant linguist on Earth, if not in the whole Federation.

Still, that comment had fueled Nyota’s passion for linguistics, and the picture her mom got of her with Hoshi became one of Nyota’s most prized possessions. Even if they never met again after that day, Nyota counted Hoshi as one of the greatest people she ever knew. A few years later when she’d heard that Hoshi died, Nyota spent practically a whole day crying about it.

But now she was at Starfleet Academy, walking the very same grounds Hoshi had been on. Even though Nyota had come a little ways from how much she idolized Hoshi as a kid, she still got a little excited whenever she found one of the spots on or around campus where she knew that Hoshi used to like to spend time according to her memoirs, which Nyota had read all of. Nyota also tracked how many languages she’d learned; although she knew it would be difficult to beat or even match Hoshi, Nyota was still at the top of her class for linguistics and thought that she might be setting the record for languages for her own Starfleet class.

Nyota also enjoyed learning non-human languages; she’d picked up Hoshi’s enthusiasm for them and the unique challenges they sometimes presented. She was learning some Orion dialects and languages from her roommate Gaila, and she and Spock had kept in touch after she finished his xenolinguistics class (top of the class of course) and he was teaching her Vulcan as well as a few other languages he’d encountered on diplomatic missions with his parents. She’d also poured over the database of non-Federation languages that Starfleet had; some of them even had audio recordings of Hoshi herself discussing the language since she’d been the first human to work with it, and Nyota found herself extra comforted by that voice, even sounded different because it was from when it was Hoshi as a young woman and not the old woman Nyota remembered.

Still, even as Nyota learned about other major figures from Starfleet’s history during her time at the Academy, none of them ever stood out to her quite as much as Hoshi. Sure, she could acknowledge the importance of the contributions made by T’Pol or Archer and other heroes of Starfleet history, but none of them had the same personal significance for her. Nyota wanted to be like Hoshi. So when she heard that Starfleet was making a new _Enterprise,_ Nyota knew what her goal would be. She’d made it to Starfleet Academy and mastered multiple languages, and now she’d make it onto the bridge of that ship. She’d be the _Enterprise_ ’s communication officer, just like Hoshi was. And while she was following in such great footsteps, Nyota knew that she’d be able to have adventures all her own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently there’s a semi-canon thing that has Hoshi dying on Tarsus IV, which would let her live long enough to meet Uhura. I decided to roll with it


	3. Secret Santa 2018: Simplifying Complexities [Michael Burnham and Ash Tyler; pre-relationship undertones]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael and Ash meet for the first time since Qo’nos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for drstrangewillseeyounow for the prompt:  
> Discovery: Ash/Michael (incl. mirror versions): anything (fluffy, angsty, plotty), also like gen/pre-relationship or first kiss(es?)
> 
> My initial thought was angsty, but I’m too much of a softie to skip a hopeful ending I guess

It was a while before they saw each other again. After the mission to Qo’nos, that goodbye and that kiss… Everything with Ash—Voq?—was complicated. He was complicated.

And he’d left. Michael’s feelings on that were complicated as well, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to sort those out, despite Tilly’s assurances that she’d be there if Michael wanted to.

She’d assumed she’d never see him again. He’d be busy helping L’Rell keep the Klingons under control, and Michael had her restored Starfleet career to worry about.

But here they were. L’Rell was somewhere nearby, and despite her urge to run from any possibly awkward social encounter Michael felt herself drawn to Ash where he was lingering near the edge of the room.

He seemed to have been watching her, but still looked surprised when he saw her. “Michael.” He smiled and started to lean in, possibly for a hug, maybe for more, but stopped himself.

“It’s good to see you, Ash. Unexpected, but good.” Michael crossed her arms over her chest, more out of discomfort and uncertainty than anything else.

“I guess not all goodbyes are forever.” He looked away at that; neither of them were much for sentimentality. The moment had passed when he looked back at her. “How have you been?”

“Good. The _Discovery_ has had some…interesting adventures.” It was putting it mildly, but other members of the crew could fill him in on that. Michael knew that Tilly would be willing to share all of it. “And you?”

“Good.” He looked over to where L’Rell was talking to people probably more suited to her new status as Chancellor. “Most Klingons don’t seem to know what to with me, except L’Rell.”

Michael had heard certain things about how L’Rell responded to the struggling Ash/Voq after Michael had had to send him away in that other universe. Stamets had been encouraging her to not swallow her words so much, so she found herself speaking up almost without thinking. “Are you and her…?” She trailed off, uncertain how to finish.

“What? No.” Ash nearly jumped at the question as he turned to look at Michael. “She and Voq had…something, but it might have been mutual grief over T’Kuvma.” He looked away from Michael at that. “But for Ash, those memories…they don’t feel the same. When I think of what happened between her and…me during the time I was captured—Ash was captured; it feels more like…trauma.” He looked back at Michael with a small smile that didn’t seem all that happy. “So no, nothing there.” He looked away again. “And I feel that I understand your reaction to me a little more, back before our mission to Qo’nos. It’s hard to love someone who hurt you.”

Michael put a hand on his arm and squeezed gently. “I get that that wasn’t really you though. It wasn’t Ash looking at me, it was Voq looking at the person who killed his leader.”

“Yes, but…” He let out a frustrated sigh and ran his hands through his hair before looking back at her. “Michael, I’m not really the Ash Tyler who was in Starfleet. I’m not really Voq either. I’m kindof both of them, kindof neither, I’m…” Another sigh, more tired this time. “I’m still figuring out who I am.”

Michael found herself thinking of her brother; even though Spock had always been fairly good at hiding it, she knew how he struggled with his dual heritage. But even though that was probably the closest someone could get to being like Ash was now, Spock had always been a child of two worlds. Some inner division, but always only one person. Ash was two people experimentally combined into one being. What felt like so long ago, she’d told him about self-discovery and how difficult it was, but he may have it even harder than she did. Although that reminded her of something. “I was wrong when I gave you advice back then. About self-discovery.” He looked at her expectantly. “It doesn’t have to just be solitary. There are some things that have to be done alone, but having people to support you…it helps.” Michael had probably grown more in her time on the _Discovery_ with friends and family around her than she had during her solitary experience imprisoned, but it took a while to see that. “You need to have the right people around you.”

There was something sad and nostalgic in his expression when he looked at her again. “I know.”

Despite herself, she loosened her filter again. “What was it? That first drew you to me, I mean.”

“Besides that you’re an amazing, intelligent, attractive person?” Ash’s smile was a little more genuine, but he looked away thoughtfully after a moment. “I don’t know, besides all that of course. Maybe some part of me that was Voq recognized you, but that wouldn’t explain how I felt. How I still—” He cleared his throat and glanced at her before looking away again. “You were an outsider, which I felt that I could relate to on some level. Lorca had taken both of us under his wing, but I’d like to think we could have still formed a connection outside of him.”

Michael just nodded; thinking of Lorca and his…manipulations still left a bad taste in her mouth.

Ash looked back at her. “Maybe on some level a part of me, before I even realized what was going on, saw a kindred spirit in you. Someone who got what it was like to feel torn between two worlds.”

Michael wanted to object, to say she didn’t have that experience. Not to the same degree as him, or even Spock. But at the same time, she could empathize to at least some degree. She remembered years of feeling like she didn’t quite belong, of carefully straightening and styling her hair in ways unnatural to it, of her tongue fumbling over Vulcan words that the rest of the family tried to teach her even after Sarek had decided it was hopeless and not worth the effort. She could still understand more than she was able to say, and what she could say wasn’t much. She remembered watching Amanda, condemned as so emotional and other things by the Vulcans but still so refined and controlled by human standards. Michael remembered wondering if she should try to match that or if she should just bury everything deeper. She remembered her first days on the Shenzhou, how she didn’t quite fit with humans either despite being told she was too human for over half of her life. And finally, she looked at Ash and remembered seeing the person who wanted to kill her, and seeing the man she loved. He may be unsure which one he was more of, but maybe she’d never known the real Ash Tyler, the human. Maybe she’d only known this man. She looked at him, knowing she’d probably paused too long. “I’m not sure our struggles are the same.” He seemed to deflate at that, just a little sagging of his tall frame. “But I do think we have a lot to learn from each other.”

Michael felt the warmth of his answering smile deep in her core. “I’m glad to hear that.” He shifted a little closer to her, moving off of the wall he’d been leaning against. “I’m not sure where I’m going next.” Her heart, so recently feeling lighter, sunk a little at that, but he continued anyways. “I’m still figuring out my place and who I am. But all of that is long term.” His next pause seemed a little nervous, something Michael didn’t expect from Ash. “But short term, for however long I’m here, I definitely want to spend some time with you. Want to head to the mess hall together?”

Michael nodded, feeling a smile slowly spread on her own face. “I’d like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Should tumblr survive long enough to do another round of these, I’ll probably post it here for backup. But for now, Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating it!


End file.
